I’ll be honest right up front: I did not enjoy Under Milk Wood. I read along while listening to the famous BBC full-cast production starring Richard Burton, and even with that assistance, this one simply did not land for me.
When I first read Nineteen Eighty-Four two years ago, I gave it just two stars. This time, it hit much harder — and I ended up at a solid four. I think I was more focused this time around, more engaged with Orwell’s world and its place in modern literature. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for it before, but rereading it after Brave New World gave me a new appreciation for its lasting impact.
Even though I first read Brave New World in college — more than twenty years ago — I didn’t remember much going into it this time. I’m sure I liked it back then, but reading it now felt more impactful, perhaps because of the world we live in today. What struck me most was that, while Huxley’s vision remains fascinating, I don’t actually see our world heading in quite the same direction.
This was a fun little collection of strange tales — some dark, some whimsical, some with a bite of revenge. While not all of them are particularly macabre, a few do venture into the eerie. One story even had a bit of a timey-wimey twist I wasn’t expecting, which made it stand out. Overall, Wailing Ghosts was a quick and enjoyable read, filled with the kind of curious folklore energy that makes these Little Black Classics so satisfying. 4 stars.
Dante Alighieri, or Dante to his friends, is probably best known for The Divine Comedy, an epic poem touring Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. I feel like everyone has read Inferno, although I never had until now. But I never hear of anyone reading the other two. Whether it’s the epic-ness of it or the translation, I suggest pressing on. Robin Kirkpatrick’s translation is readable and mostly understandable, while maintaining the lyricality of Dante’s original poem.
This is the third work I’ve read as I make my way through the works of William Shakespeare in [somewhat] chronological order of writing/publication. For this project, I’ve chosen The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series, as my [quite scholarly] guide. On this read-through, I’m not assigning star-ratings – I have little on which to compare these works at this point. I may revisit them later to add ratings once I’ve read more of the canon.
A Christmas Carol has long been my all-time favorite book, but with Great Expectations, I finally and properly met Charles Dickens. And what an introduction it was.
This book broke my heart — and not in a sweet, wistful way. This is a gut-punch of a novel that takes on Victorian morality, gender roles, and the unforgiving weight of societal judgment. While the story takes place in rural 19th-century England, its themes still echo uncomfortably in the present day. Hardy doesn’t hold back in showing how the world punishes women for the sins of men and the hypocrisies of a supposedly moral society.
This is a couple essays from the 1800s. Although he can be quite rambling at times, both essays still stand up in some ways today.